Manual of the Planes

APPENDIX:VARIANT PLANES& COSMOLOGIES210Time LoopsPieces of other planes occasionally bob and weavethrough the storm, impervious to the effects of thewinds of time. These are time loops, pieces of variousplanes that have become separated from their originalrealms. Time loops appear much as they did on theiroriginal planes, except their inhabitants take the sameactions again and again, repeating themselves endlessly.A time loop is rarely larger than a few hundredsquare feet in area.On the Plane of Temporal Energy, time loops can be arefuge for those battered by the storm—and a possibleway of exiting the Plane of Time. Should a newcomer toa time loop manage to interrupt the sequence of eventssignificantly or complete a task that the time loop’sinhabitants have never finished, the time loop returnsto its original plane. This can be a blessing or a curse forthe original inhabitants of the time loop, who have beenliving on a plane with the erratic time trait for years ifnot centuries.Citadel of EternityA common legend states that all the winds of the Plane ofTime orbit a single spot: the Citadel of Eternity. Thenature of the citadel is unknown. Perhaps it contains thetrue secret of immortality, the fountain of ultimate youth,or the original creator of the cosmos.Other histories indicate that the Citadel of Eternitymay actually be the physical incarnation of time’s end—or beginning. To pass into the citadel is to move beyondthe bounds of time itself. It is difficult to imagine whatmight lie beyond time. Perhaps the way leads to ultimatedissolution, or, as some researchers suggest, the Citadelof Eternity is the doorway into a manifest madness calledthe Far Realm.The area within a few hundred feet of the citadel isembedded in an extreme time wrinkle. For each minutethat passes there, a year passes on the Material Plane.PLANE OF FAERIEThe Outer Plane of Faerie is a land of soft lights and crueldesires, the home of powerful elflike beings that carelittle for mortals other than as playthings and prey. It is acountry of little people with great desires. It is a place ofmusic and death.Faerie is an oddity in most cosmologies: a coexistentOuter Plane. It functions like an Outer Plane, but it connectsclosely to the Material Plane, and a location on theMaterial Plane matches with a Faerie duplicate. Faerieoverlaps the Material Plane in such a way that travelersdon’t need the Astral Plane to cross between the twoplanes. Moving onto the Plane of Faerie from old ruinson the Material Plane, for example, puts a traveler at thedoor of a Faerie lord’s castle.The Plane of Faerie is a realm of eternal twilight,with slow lanterns bobbing in the gentle breeze andhuge fireflies buzzing through groves and fields. Thesky is alight with the faded colors of the setting, orperhaps rising, sun. But in fact the sun never truly setsor rises; it remains stationary, dusky and low in thesky. Away from the settled areas of the Seelie Court,the land is a tangle of sharp-toothed brambles andsyrupy fens—perfect territory for the Unseelie tohunt their prey.FAERIE TRAITSThe Plane of Faerie has the following traits.• Light Gravity.• Infinite Size: At the very least, the Plane of Faerie is aslarge as the Material Plane.• Alterable Morphic.• No Elemental or Energy Traits: Sections of theplane may have the minor positive-dominant trait orminot negative-dominant trait, but Faerie as a wholedoes not.• Mildly Neutral-Aligned.• Enhanced Magic: The Plane of Faerie is highly magical,and all arcane spells cast there are maximized,empowered, and extended (as if prepared or cast withthe appropriate feats). The fair folk do not care muchfor the pious of any faith, so divine magic is unaffected.• Flowing Time: For every day spent on the Plane ofFaerie, a week passes on the Material Plane. Butunlike most planes with the flowing time trait, timelost on the Plane of Faerie catches up with the traveler.Non-natives who spend time on the Plane ofFaerie and then return to a plane with the normaltime trait instantly “catch up.” Those affected may beravenous if they have not eaten in weeks as measuredby Material Plane time. A visitor who stays a long timeon the Plane of Faerie may die if “catching up” withMaterial Plane time takes her beyond her normal lifespan (maximum ages for each race are given in Table6–5 in Chapter 6 of the Player’s Handbook). The nativesof Faerie are unaffected by this phenomenon, and onlythe most astute natives mention it to visitors from theMaterial Plane.FAERIE LINKSThe Plane of Faerie is coexistent with the Material Planeand can be reached without passing through the AstralPlane. It is a separate plane from the Transitive, Inner,and Outer Planes. It follows the topography of the MaterialPlane closely; should two portals to the Plane ofFaerie be a mile apart on the Material Plane, they willsimilarly be a mile apart on the Plane of Faerie.Portals to the Plane of Faerie only appear at certaintimes, such as during a new moon, at the equinoxes, oronce every ninety days. Such portals often exist withinstanding stones or pools on the Material Plane.Because the Plane of Faerie doesn’t connect to theAstral Plane, the Ethereal Plane, or the Plane of Shadow,spells that use those planes do not function on the Planeof Faerie.